Back to firing squads for executions?

posted at 2:31 pm on January 18, 2014 by Jazz Shaw

Earlier this month the state of Ohio ran into some problems executing Dennis McGuire, who had been convicted of raping and murdering Joy Stewart in 1989. Having run out of pentobarbital – the execution drug of choice – due to a boycott by the manufacturer, they “experimented” with a new drug combination which apparently took too long to kill him in the view of some observers. Capital punishment is controversial enough these days, and if this is going keep up an alternate solution will be required. With that in mind, lawmakers from Missouri and Wyoming have suggested going back to a tried and true method of dispatching the monsters in our midst.

Missouri state Representative Rick Brattin, said Friday the controversy over lethal injections forces families of murder victims to wait too long for justice so he introduced his bill Thursday to add “firing squad” as an execution option.

“A lot of folks may picture the 1850s and everyone lining up to shoot, but the reality is that people suffer with every type of death,” said Brattin, a Republican. “This is no less humane than lethal injection.”

…

Brattin’s bill follows a measure Republican Wyoming state Senator Bruce Burns introduced last week to add firing squad as an execution option for the state if drugs are not available.

“If I had my choice, I would take the firing squad over lethal injection,” Burns said.

Wyoming law also allows inmates to be gassed, but the state does not have a gas chamber, Burns said.

This story reminds me very much of the first execution I can remember and the controversy surrounding it which erupted into a debate in my own home. That was when Gary Gilmore was scheduled to die in Utah and he apparently didn’t have any problem with a firing squad, judging by his final words. (“Let’s do it!“) I was just leaving for boot camp at the time, and my parents were regularly debating Utah’s plan to allow Gilmore the death he chose. My Dad’s take on it, delivered in his usual, deadpan style was to say, “It worked well enough on the Germans.” (Knowing the stories of how long my Dad spent in Europe during WW2, that probably wasn’t just a joke, either.) My Mom was born and raised Catholic and didn’t believe in the hand of man taking the lives of people, be it capital punishment for criminals or abortion of babies. But even if it had to be done, she seemed particularly horrified by the idea of using a firing squad to do it.

I know many of you oppose executions in principle, and well meaning people are certainly able to make a strong case for their opinions on this issue. Personally, I feel that the death penalty is justified for the worst monsters, though we need to set a very high bar for being sure we’ve got the right person identified as the guilty party. (There isn’t exactly an option to repeal if you mess that one up.) But how to do it?

This goes back to what I’ve always seen as one of the rather nonsensical aspects of the debate. It went downhill somewhat when we introduced the idea of “compassionate execution” into the conversation. It doesn’t seem to me that a firing squad is particularly slower, more painful or measurably more “cruel” than any other method, providing the shooters are well trained and using the right equipment for the job. And even if you do believe that a firing squad isn’t the most “humane” way to intentionally kill a convicted monster, how did we become so wrapped up in the “cruel and unusual” aspect of this debate anyway? It’s not like being killed is going to be a particularly pleasant experience no matter how it’s done, and you probably should have thought of that before you decided to rape and kill all those women.

It seems to me that a well executed (pardon the pun) date with a firing squad is just as effective as any other method, and probably a lot quicker and cleaner than either an electric chair or a gas chamber. And when legislators claim that it’s barbaric or exceedingly cruel, you should point them to some of the executions in Florida’s infamous chair, Old Sparky. A line of well trained men with high power rifles is probably more of a courtesy than most killers deserve by comparison.

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

What’s the problem with hanging as the primary means of execution? It works, as you mentioned, Jazz, it doesn’t seem particularly any more cruel or unreliable than any other method, and it has a proven history of effectiveness.

France favored the guillotine for sometime, it was quick and effective and likely as painless as any other means, albeit bloody, but so is death by firing squad.

If the Left loses the argument about ‘cruel and unusual’.. I can already hear the new argument against electrocution…”It’s not environmentally green! It’s a waste of energy. It leaves a huge carbon footprint!”

I believe the missing imam married the 11 years old to his son and he also killed her. The story is false. It’s not suicide. It’s impossible with that rifle. Total uproar about this in Europe and in Turkey, for now…

Being strapped to a chair or table in a windowless basement room seems the least humane to me. Talk about abject terror. All executions should be performed outside, preferably on a sunny day. Let the bastard get one last look at what he’s about to lose and feel the sun for the final time.

Based on what I’ve learned (history channel, articles) regarding the means of execution…

1) Hanging requires a little more finesse than most people think. The goal is to snap the neck, not to watch them strangle, or in the most gruesome case, detaching their head from their body. You have to do some calculation on the type of rope, weight of the criminal and length of drop to do so effectively.

2) Which brings us to the guillotine. Considering all factors, this is probably the most humane method of execution since it is incredibly fast and predictable each time. I think I remember hearing that it occurs so quickly, the nerves can’t even transmit pain before its over.

3) Firing squad is also fast and effective when carried out with precision since these are headshots we’re talking about… not shooting them and letting them bleed to death.

4) Lethal injection is a joke and should be stopped. Since it is considered a medical device, too much emphasis is placed on making sure the equipment is sterile, etc. Execution is not a medical procedure… it is justice being carried out by the state.

5) I believe that electrocution is probably the worst approach, but maybe that is from watching The Green Mile too many times.

Personally, I feel that the death penalty is justified for the worst monsters, though we need to set a very high bar for being sure we’ve got the right person identified as the guilty party.

There are only two options, guilty or not guilty. Jurors aren’t given the choice of saying maybe guilty, probably guilty, or absolutely without a doubt guilty. This is why I never understand people who say the death penalty should only be used when guilt is obvious.

What’s the problem with hanging as the primary means of execution? It works, as you mentioned, Jazz, it doesn’t seem particularly any more cruel or unreliable than any other method, and it has a proven history of effectiveness.

France favored the guillotine for sometime, it was quick and effective and likely as painless as any other means, albeit bloody, but so is death by firing squad.

thatsafactjack on January 18, 2014 at 2:38 PM

Hanging has worked perfectly well for centuries. Especially after they learned to tie a proper hangman’s knot and position it correctly under the ear.

Cartridges cost more per pound than rope, too.

The Nazis executed after Nuremberg were hanged. If it was good enough for Jodl, Seyss-Inquart, Streicher, Frick, Frank, Rosenberg, Kaltenbrunner, Keitel, and von Ribbentrop, it’s good enough for the “average” murderer.

Goering doesn’t count as he committed suicide a few hours before his date with the gallows.

BTW, when speaking of execution by hanging, “hanged” is the correct past tense, not “hung”. You can say “the Mona Lisa was hung in the Louvre”, but not “General Yamashita was hung for the atrocities committed by troops under his command in the Philippines.” A point of grammar apparently unknown to modern news readers.

4) Lethal injection is a joke and should be stopped. Since it is considered a medical device, too much emphasis is placed on making sure the equipment is sterile, etc. Execution is not a medical procedure… it is justice being carried out by the state.

It has to do with the people starting the IV maintaining their licenses to do so.

5) I believe that electrocution is probably the worst approach, but maybe that is from watching The Green Mile too many times.

Just my thoughts…

dominigan on January 18, 2014 at 2:57 PM

The circuitry of the brain is fried within milliseconds and they are for all purposes brain dead. It may take additional electricity to stop the heart. Again, it is not painful.

Indeed, Paladin. The hypocrisy of overwhelming on the LEFT, and particularly with regard to the Muslim’s treatment of women and others in their society.

I feel so sorry for that little girl. I literally shudder to think of the miserable existence she must have endured.

People were appalled when the J.C. Dugard story broke and the facts regarding her abduction and existence were revealed. These little girls, married off to older men by their families, or abducted and used as slaves by their own people, suffer just as much as Dugard did in many cases and live lives of that same kind of desperation and deprivation. Sometimes, much worse, with mutilations, endless beatings, and, as the case with this particular child, even death.

As you point out, the LEFT, from the UN to Obama on down, including those ‘feminists’, have nothing to say and choose to look the other way.

Personally, I feel that the death penalty is justified for the worst monsters,

Execution is the appropriate penalty for any murderer. Take someone else’s life then you have given up any right to continue your life. Pretty simple. The real monsters ought to be killed in about the same way they killed their victims.

It’s strange how most of us have a good chance of dying a horrible death just by chance – either in a car accident, due to a painful illness or at the hands of one of these monsters – but the only people in society who are nearly guaranteed to die a painless death are those who have inflicted so much pain on innocent others. There is just no sense to this.

Firing squads are good in that they are pretty cheap and plenty, but most of these dirtbags don’t deserve the easy death of a firing squad. Most of them deserve to be slowly cooked in an electric chair.

The death penalty is already set at a very high bar. Of course, when they do the yearly phony gallup do you support the death penalty poll, they phrase it as to read that people who commit murder are executed. It takes a lot more than just committing a first degree murder to be eligible for the death penalty and even more to have the death penalty imposed.

BTW, when speaking of execution by hanging, “hanged” is the correct past tense, not “hung”. You can say “the Mona Lisa was hung in the Louvre”, but not “General Yamashita was hung for the atrocities committed by troops under his command in the Philippines.” A point of grammar apparently unknown to modern news readers.

Pithing is the practice of physically disrupting the brain and rostral part of the spinal cord. The mechanical damage to the brain stem prevents the animal from regaining consciousness and makes the stunning irreversible. Pithing does not compensate for a poorly performed captive bolt shot. It is inhumane to pith an unstunned animal (8).

The pithing rod (pithing cane) used in this study is a flexible plastic rod, approximately 1.0 m in length with a slight curvature (cattle pith rod “Pith+Plug,” Operating Platforms, Bristol, England). The rod is 7 mm in diameter and x-shaped on cross section. One end of the rod has a sponge to absorb body fluids and 5 pairs of barbs to prevent the rod from slipping out, or being removed, once it has been inserted fully into the cranial cavity.

The pithing rod is inserted into the perforation in the forehead made by the captive bolt gun or free bullet. With some manipulation, the rod can be pushed through the neural tissue of the fore- and hindbrain into the spinal canal

But remember stun em first. Good enough for innocent Bessie? Good enough for these monsters.

I confess I hadn’t thought of it in connection to Obama. Good call. As desperate as he is for something, anything, he can sign an Executive Order on in order to prove he’s still relevant it’s entirely possible this will become his next ‘pivot’.

BTW, when speaking of execution by hanging, “hanged” is the correct past tense, not “hung”. You can say “the Mona Lisa was hung in the Louvre”, but not “General Yamashita was hung for the atrocities committed by troops under his command in the Philippines.” A point of grammar apparently unknown to modern news readers.

clear ether

eon

eon on January 18, 2014 at 3:00 PM

Excellent point. A simpler rule:

Meat is hung, humans are hanged.

thatsafactjack on January 18, 2014 at 3:05 PM

The old legal term for the death sentence was “to be hanged by the neck until dead.” In fact, former CIA Director Woolsey used that very phrase recently re. Snowden.

It’s just so, so, so compassionate to be concerned about the (hypothetical) suffering of the executed, whereas the poor woman is just an afterthought.

Jeddite on January 18, 2014 at 3:12 PM

I’m betting Joy Stewart’s torture and suffering lasted longer than fifteen minutes and was much less ‘compassionate’.
Sign me up. I’d be happy to get some target practice in turn for some discounted ammo.

Excellent smackdown of it in the gun thread!!! AP increased the number of comments over there, in nonpartisan fashion.

Schadenfreude on January 18, 2014 at 3:11 PM

Actually I got there too late-I was just piling on as nonpartisan had already run back to the basement to go into conference with verbaloon. And the best smackdown IMHO was when someone gave nonp the new name (IQ-related), “77″. Hilarious.

I would have preferred “33″, but that’s still being used by Rolling Rock Beer.

*sigh* It’s “principle”, Jazz. And how many of us oppose executions on principle? Unless you’re counting nonpartisan and verbaldouche and LFoD multiple times?

As to firing squads I’m not a fan, simply because they require multiple people to be involved in the actual death. Remember the old saw about some number of the firing squad being given blanks so no one actually knew who was firing the fatal round(s).

I am an advocate of hanging, for several reasons:
1) economical – the rope can be re-used (not doing so at all is a decision based on reasons other than any physics involved with the rope)
2) visibility – the scaffolding can remain up constantly, as a reminder to people that the state will take your life if you cross certain boundaries
3) swift – even if the criminal’s neck doesn’t snap, if the rope is tied properly, he will suffocate very rapidly
4) symbolic – there is something very final about the criminal dangling there (this is true of a firing squad, too, as he slumps in death) that just isn’t present when he’s lying all comfy on a hospital gurney
5) symbolic – get rid of any idea that this act is anything but the state snuffing out the life of someone who crossed the line; it’s not “humane”, it’s killing someone who forfeited their life by their actions
6) technology – you really don’t have to rely on good old hemp alone or on the knot to ensure the neck snaps or the noose is pulled tight

Yeah, I love all this concern for how these killers are dying. Who the hell cares if an execution took 24 minutes? Did he show any such concern for his victim? Hang ‘em, shoot ‘em, electrocute ‘em, gas ‘em…I couldn’t care less.

I don’t get it. Why can’t they just use a general anesthetic for death sentences? Either enough to kill them outright, or enough to put them out followed by something else that they won’t feel.

JackAsterson on January 18, 2014 at 2:50 PM

I have also wondered about this. We all go under anesthetic knocking us out when we go in to get cut up in surgery. If we are all so panicky about causing the murderer discomfort, why don’t we just anesthetize them and then cut their throats?

I’m all for killing the murderer the same way they killed their victim, but I really do not understand the difficulty with putting them to sleep.

Though perhaps even better than anesthetic:

I think the “No Country for Old Men” method would work just fine.

If it’s good enough to dispatch a cow, it’s good enough to dispatch a murdering rapist.

If someone pleads GUILTY to something, why do we shorten their prison sentence? Common sense tells me their penalty should be longer, and if they plead guilty to murder, they should be dead within 1 minute of saying it.

They whined about pentobarbital being inhuman, too. Pentobarbital is also known as Nembutal. It’s the drug Oregon and Europe use to euthanize people. It’s also been the drug of choice of Hollywood starlets to commit suicide. But of course, it’s inhumane for cold blooded killers.

Regarding what Blake and others said, that he was comatose and unaware of what was happening: I have no technical knowledge of this sort of thing, but that’s what I suspected just based on my own experience under general anesthesia. I assume that the real problem is that the spectators were discomfited by the event, but that he was past knowing.

Nitrogen asphyxiation is the way to go.
Nitrogen is an inert gas, yet it makes up about 76% of the atmosphere. But without oxygen, it cannot support life.
There was an incident a few years ago at NASA, where some rocket technicians collapsed and died when they walked into a rocket engine flooded with nitrogen. They didn’t even realize they were in trouble until they blacked out because we normally respire nitrogen. There is no pain, no smell, no sense of suffocation. You just black out and expire.

An Ohio inmate facing execution next week from an untried method is at substantial risk of a medical phenomenon known as air hunger, which will cause him to experience terror as he strains to catch his breath, an anesthesiologist testified Friday at a federal court hearing.

Because condemned killer David McGuire has several characteristics of someone with sleep apnea, or the struggle to breathe while asleep, the chances are even greater he will be subjected to feelings of suffocation, said David Waisel, a professor at Harvard Medical School.

“Mr. McGuire is at a substantial risk of experiencing the terror of air hunger during the first five minutes of the execution,” Waisel testified as a witness for defense attorneys trying to stop McGuire’s execution Thursday.

“Air hunger is a horrible feeling,” Waisel added. “It’s the inability to get your breath.”

Waisel testified at the beginning of a two-day hearing on the state’s new lethal drug process.

Ohio plans to use intravenous doses of two drugs, midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a painkiller, to put McGuire to death. The method has been part of Ohio’s execution process since 2009, though never used. It was chosen because of a shortage of other lethal injection drugs.
(More…)
=========

Death is painful for most people. We should not get overly concerned about the death penalty pain for murderers or traitors or torturers or child rapists. Really all we are doing is moving that pain ahead for a few years. It still would have happened.

Several US States were still using firing squads as recently as 5 years ago. And it’s still legal in Oklahoma.

Anyone know if they still use the old practice of only having a real bullet in one of the guns, and the rest of the guns firing blanks? That way none of the firing squad members would ever know which one of them fired the fatal shot.